Latest BKV Strike Threats Somehow Leave Us Feeling Empty

According to Blikk, workers at bottomless pit of patronage, corruption and epic employee sloth Budapest public transport operator BKV are mulling a shutdown of the city’s metros, buses and trams, perhaps in conjunction with the March 15th national holiday. Whether they will or won’t we don’t know, and there’s not much more we can say about the insanity of BKV workers threatening to walk out that we haven’t said before. At the same time, we haven’t yet had a chance to comment on the spectacle of BKV workers going on hunger strike to keep perks that the rest of us can only dream about.

Last week Index reported that a BKV worker by the name of Ibolya Fodor had gone on a hunger strike outside the company’s headquarters to protest plans by the Budapest municipality to end discount passes for the troubled public transit company’s staff.

Fodor said that if the discount is cut she will not be able to make ends meet. “This month we didn’t get our HUF 7,000 food vouchers and my salary has been cut, while utility and food prices are on the rise,” she wrote in an open letter to the head of BKV (above). “We can either choose not to eat or be put on the street,” the letter went on to say. “I can’t tighten my belt anymore, I just can’t.” Though actually, since this was last week, assuming she’s still on her hunger strike we’ll bet that by now she can tighten her belt a bit more!

“At the same time, we haven’t yet had a chance to comment on the spectacle of BKV workers going on hunger strike to keep perks that the rest of us can only dream about.”

I think that’s a bit harsh. It’s not like these workers are getting a decent wage and these are “perks” or “bonuses” on top of their wages. These benefits are part of their wages, so having them removed is just giving a wage cut to those that can least afford it.

A bigger issue is the money wasted on paperwork and bureaucracy caused by having these schemes, but I guess the idea of removing the perks and just paying people a decent wage is a non runner from the start.